Yet It Is Well Cultivated, And
Productive; And Its Manufactures Are Superior To Those Of Nyffe; The
Cloth Especially Is Reckoned The Best In Africa.
Wooden vessels, mats,
shoes, horse trappings, and rude agricultural instruments, are likewise
made.
The travellers saw many natives plying their various occupations in
the open air. The chief of the place possesses a naval force of 600
canoes.
Opposite Zagoshi, on the eastern shore of the river, stands Rabba, the
largest and most flourishing city of Nyffe. The surrounding territory is
fertile, and produces large crops of grain; the people possess many
flocks and herds. The travellers' stock of goods to be exchanged for
provisions was now so nearly exhausted by the delays they had met with,
and the extortions of the chiefs and natives, that they began to be in
difficulties, and were compelled to part with several valuable articles,
and among the rest with Mungo Park's robe.
Before they left Zagoshi, they exchanged their two canoes for one, which
appeared more commodious, and better adapted for the navigation of the
river. It was fifteen feet long, and four broad, perfectly strait, and
flat-bottomed. They had not gone far, however, when the canoe began to
leak, and they discovered that it had been patched up in many places,
After they had paddled about thirty miles, they were in great danger from
the hippopotami, which rose very near to them, and came "snorting,
splashing, and tumbling all round the canoe." They fired a shot or two,
but the noise only called up more of these unwieldy monsters to the
surface.
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